Luminous clock with neon-illumination of dial and hands



Oct. 20, 1953 w, usc 2,655,783

LUMINOUS CLOCK WITH NEON-ILLUMINATION OF DIAL AND HANDS Filed Sept. 19, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet l Y J 21522 10 4 4 I046 B 25 b 17 5" 1s 24 1 15 5 J4 INVENTOR. hI/fer 0mm,

Oct. 20, 1953 w. USCHKAMP LUMINOUS CLOCK WITH NEON-ILLUMINATION OF DIAL. AND HANDS Filed Sept. 19, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Wa/zer usc/rkam o lrry,

Patented Oct. 20, 1953 LUMINOUS CLOCK WITH NEON-ILLUMINA- TION OF DIAL AND HANDS Walter Uschkamp, Frankfurt am Main Hochst, Germany Application September 19, 1950, Serial No. 185,629 In Germany September 26, 1949 6 Claims.

Large clocks are known which besides a neontube illumination of the dial are provided with the same for the hands. In this case the hands carry one or more neon-tubes With the necessary accessories (transformers etc.). These devices suffer under the disadvantage that the weight of the hands is so large that voluminous counterweights are required for balancing. Furthermore such devices are only feasible for very large clocks.

It is an object of the present invention to pro-- vide a luminous clock with neon- (inert gas) tube illumination which can be produced with relatively small dimensions, and with hands (hour and minute hands) formed by the neontubes themselves, thus doing away with the additional weight of essential or accessory parts on the hands themselves. The ends of these hands that are adapted to receive the operating electric current are arranged behind the dial so that they are hidden by the latter.

The ends of the luminous tubes forming the hands are bent at right angles and extend through a central opening in the dial. Each tube is fastened to a disk that carries the device for the introduction of the electric current, and is arranged coaxially with, and at a certain distance from, the dial, and is rotated by the clock work with the speed necessary for the respective hand. The luminous tubes are supplied with opcrating current by suitable slip rings fastened to the faces of the disks not adjacent to the tubes. The slip rings receive the current from the main supply through sliding contacts bearing elastically on them.

An example of a device according to the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing. There are shown in:

Fig. 1 a front view;

Fig. 2 a cross-section along line IIII of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 a top View of the disk supporting the minute hand; (arrow A in Fig. 2)

Fig. 4 a top view of the disk supporting the hour hand (arrow B in Fig. 2)

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view of a portion of the device partially in section, on an enlarged scale, taken generally on line 5-5 of Fig. 1.

According to Fig. 1 the dial I is provided with a luminous tube 2 of orhicular shape carrying the markings 3 for reading the times. The minute hand is formed by the luminous tube 4, and the hour hand by similar tube 5, which tubes contain neon or some other similar inert gas. These tubes 4 and 5 are bent into a shape characdisk 8 is arranged and is fastened to the shaft 9 rotating the minute hand. Fastened to the disk 8, and rotating with it, is the luminous tube 4 forming the minute hand. The fastening is effected, as is shown in Fig. 3 by the clips I0 which hold the tube ends 4a, 41) carrying the current admission leads (electrodes II). For this purpose the luminous tube 4 i bent again behind the dial I so that its ends 4a and 41) rest on the disk 8.

Behind the disk 8, at a distance from it, a similar rotatably mounted disk [4 is arranged which carries the luminous tube 5 forming the hour hand. The central part of this disk is fastened to a hollow drive shaft !2 for the hour hand (a so-called hour tube, or quarter tube), driven at the appropriate speed and having the minute hand shaft 9 extending therethrough. The luminous tube 5 is also bent at a right angle behind the dial and the two arms of it first extend radially outward to a suiiicient distance beyond the periphery of the disk 8, and then are twice bent again at right angles for circumventing the disk 8. The ends 5a and 5b of the luminous tube 5 carrying the current leads (electrodes 15) rest on the disk I4, and are fastened to it by clips IT.

The electric current for the luminous tubes 4 and 5 is supplied from a stationary source of current not shown in the drawing, by way of the sliding contacts l8, l9 mounted on a strip [6 of insulating material, and provided with contact pieces 20, 2| bearing resiliently on two concentric sliding rings 22, 23 fastened to the face of the disk [4 not adjacent to the luminous tube ends 5a, 5b. On the disk [4 two other similarly shaped contacts 24, 25 are arranged, each of which being connected to one of the slip rings 22, 23. The contact pieces of the sliding contacts 24, 25 bear resiliently on the slip ring 26, 21 on the backside of the disk 8 which are connected with the electrodes H of the luminous tube 4. For the purpose of keeping the force required for rotating the minute and hour hands at all their positions as uniform and as low as possible, counterweights 28, 29 are arranged on the disks 8 and 14, respectively.

Asia! as stresses are concerned the luminous tubes 4 and 5 can be considered as cantilever beams. They must, therefore, in order to have the necessary strength factor, in some cases have suitably strengthened walls. For increasing the bending strength of the tubes they may be reinforced also by material foreign to the normal tube material, as for instance, light metals. Such reinforcement may be arranged at the back side of the tubes 4, 5 adjacent to the dial I as shown at 8a in Figs. 1 and 5.

I claim:

1. In a luminous clock, the combination of a fixed face plate having time indicating figures thereon and formed with a central opening, at least two hands arranged in front of said fixed plate and each consisting of an electric discharge tube of substantially U-shaped configuration and having the opposite end portions thereof bent rearwardly through said central opening of the fixed plate, concentrically and rotatably mounted supporting means for said hands disposed behind said fixed plate and having the end portions of the related electric discharge tubes fixedly secured thereto, said supporting means being adapted to be coupled to a clockwork, electrical conducting slip rings on said supporting means, and electric leads extending from said end portions of each electric discharge tube and electrically connected to the slip rings on the associated supporting means.

2. In a luminous clock, the combination according to claim 1, wherein said supporting means include axially spaced disks having said end portions of the related electric discharge tubes secured to the front faces thereof, and said. slip rings are mounted on the rear faces of said disks, and including contact buttons slidably contacting said slip rings to conduct electric current to the latter.

3. In a luminous clock, the combination according to claim 2, wherein said contact buttons are resilient to maintain continuous contact with said slip rings.

4. In a luminous clock, the combination according to claim 1, wherein said electrical discharge tubes are formed with metal reinforcements at the locations exposed to the greatest stress for reinforcing the hands at said locations.

5. In a luminous clock, the combination according to claim 1, including reinforcing mem bers extending along said electric discharge tubes of a material other than that employed for the latter and disposed at the sides of said tubes facing toward said fixed plate.

6. In a luminous clock, the combination of a fixed face plate having time indicating figures thereon and formed with a central opening, at least two hands arranged in front of said plate and each consisting of an electric discharge tube of substantially U-shaped configuration and having the end portions thereof radially inward and bent rearwardly to extend through said central opening, supporting disks for said discharge tubes mounted concentrically and rotatably behind said fixed plate and in axial registration with said central opening, said end portions of the electric discharge tubes being spaced apart differently so that the closer together end portions extend through said central opening between the further apart end portions, means securing the end portions of said electric discharge tubes to the front faces of the related supporting disks with said closer together end portions being secured to the foremost disk and said furthest apart end portions being secured to the rearmost disk, means for connecting said disks to a driving clockwork, slip rings mounted on the rear face of each of said disks, electrical leads extending from said end portions and connected to said slip rings on the related disk, fixed contacts slidably engaging the slip rings on said rearmost disk for conducting electric current thereto, ,and movable contacts mounted on the front of each disk with the exception of said foremost disk and slidably engaging the slip rings on the disk disposed there-in-front, said movable contacts being electrically connected to the slip rings on its supporting disk.

WALTER USCHKAMP.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 524,752 Bohm Aug. 21, 1894 1,888,366 Willens Nov. 22, 1932 1,905,378 Gechter Apr. 25, 1933 2,008,930 Schmidt July 23, 1935 2,072,795 Childs Mar. 2, 1937 2,212,359 Wilcox Aug. 20, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 589,806 Germany a Dec. 18, 1933 

